The History of Global Climate Negotiations, in 83 Seconds

If you’re having a bad day, know it could be worse. You could be one of the thousands of delegates, journalists or activists enduring the annual exercise in futility that is the U.N. climate summit. This year’s edition in the Middle Eastern city of Doha was meant to wrap up at the end of the day, but as is often the case with climate talks, the negotiations will almost surely be going into overtime. This despite the fact that very little progress is likely to come out of the talks, which are hung up over questions of climate aid for developing nations and the status of the now 15-year-old Kyoto Protocol.

How did we get here? The good people at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research and the Research Council of Norway have put together a video that explains the background to the current deadlock in less than a minute and a half. If only it were this easy to figure out how to fix it. (Hat tip to Will Oremus at Slate for posting this video.)

If you’re having a bad day, know it could be worse. You could be one of the thousands of delegates, journalists or activists enduring the annual exercise in futility that is the U.N. climate summit. This year’s edition in the Middle Eastern city of Doha was meant to wrap up at the end of the day, but as is often the case with climate talks, the negotiations will almost surely be going into overtime. This despite the fact that very little progress is likely to come out of the talks, which are hung up over questions of climate aid for developing nations and the status of the now 15-year-old Kyoto Protocol.

How did we get here? The good people at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research and the Research Council of Norway have put together a video that explains the background to the current deadlock in less than a minute and a half. If only it were this easy to figure out how to fix it. (Hat tip to Will Oremus at Slate for posting this video.)